If you want to see LiAngelo and LaMelo ball play professionally in Lithuania you’ll officially have to pay Big Baller prices. Since the younger of the three Ball brothers announced their intentions to go pro and signed with the Lithuanian club Vytautas Prienai, ticket prices for the club’s games have skyrocketed.
Perhaps as an attempt to turn a better profit than the coach that sells meat out of the back of his car after practice, Vytautas Prienai tickets have jumped nearly three times their standard rate in the days since the Ball brothers signed with the club.
As For The Win points out, tickets for an ordinary regular season game for Vytautas Prientai cost about 2.40 euro on a Lithuanian ticket retailer’s website. Based on a quick Google search, that means tickets run fans about $2.83 in American dollars, which is quite the bargain.
But with the Balls expected to make their debut on Jan. 9, tickets for that game against BC Tsmoki-Minsk are much more expensive.
The game is already the No. 9 trending matchup on ticket retailer Tiketa, and the prices will stand out for the Lithuanian fans. That’s because the 7.30-euro starting price is three times more expensive than the club’s typical Baltic Basketball League ticket cost of 2.40 euro.
With the current exchange rates, that means the cheapest tickets would cost $8.60 stateside. While that’s certainly not a fortune, it is a serious markup from what is normally charged. And while there is no way this is the case, let’s assume the team sells 1,000 tickets that normally cost 2.40 euro for 7.30 euro. That’s a difference of 4.90 euro per ticket, and an additional 4,900 euro in the team’s pocket.
Of course, Vytautas Prientai it’s probable that the team will sell more expensive tickets and very possible will sell more than 1,000 seats for this game, so the franchise is in for a serious payday. It’s an early indication that the Balls may indeed be a viable draw for the small club. Right now most of the reaction out of Lithuania has been pretty silly, with a fake tourism video and a lovingly-crafted song, but if the Ball brothers can indeed get fans in the stands for the club, it will have been a worthy gamble for Vytautas Prienai.
Whether it’s a valuable gamble for LiAngelo and LaMelo, however, will be much more difficult to determine in the short term.
